What Stars Are Made Of
The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
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What Stars Are Made Of
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Narrated by:
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Donovan Moore
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Elizabeth Wiley
About this listen
It was not easy being a woman of ambition in early 20th-century England, much less one who wished to be a scientist. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin overcame prodigious obstacles to become a woman of many firsts: the first to receive a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College, the first promoted to full professor at Harvard, the first to head a department there. And, in what has been called "the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy", she was the first to describe what stars are made of.
Payne-Gaposchkin lived in a society that did not know what to make of a determined schoolgirl who wanted to know everything. She was derided in college and refused a degree. As a graduate student, she faced formidable skepticism. Revolutionary ideas rarely enjoy instantaneous acceptance, but the learned men of the astronomical community found hers especially hard to take seriously. Though welcomed at the Harvard College Observatory, she worked for years without recognition or status. Still, she accomplished what every scientist yearns for: discovery. She revealed the atomic composition of stars - only to be told that her conclusions were wrong by the very man who would later show her to be correct.
©2020 Donovan Moore (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about What Stars Are Made Of
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Epic time l jade most helpful
- 23-12-23
An incredible life.
Narrator was ok. Life story truly amazing. An accomplished and inspiring lady. I highly recommend.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Peter Maggs
- 30-09-24
Fascinating story
Many years ago I acquired a copy of Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin’s book ‘Introduction to Astronomy’. It is beautifully written, clear and concise, and so much more than a dry textbook with hundreds of literary quotations; quite a work of art. Apparently it was prepared from her lectures to undergraduates at Harvard.
Cecelia Payne was born in 1900 in England, and after getting her degree from Cambridge she went to America to pursue a career in Astronomy which was impossible at home. Even there, in spite of a brilliant PhD thesis overturning the current theories of the content of stars, she was paid a derisory salary and denied proper academic status at Harvard for years.
For anyone interested in Astronomy this is an absolutely fascinating tale.
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